NANTES – This city in western French is getting ready to launch its own local currency as a complement to the euro.

Though Nantes is following the example of the WIR cooperative bank in Basel, Switzerland, where 60,000 small and medium-sized enterprises are already using a cashless payment system, this will be the first time a…

The highest paid rogues in what is quickly becoming the greatest oligarchy in the world. The top five American criminals CEO are:

1)John Hammergren, McKesson Corporation: $145,266,971. He runs the largest health care firm in the known universe (Gross revenues of $108.7 billion) his take from 2011’s stock options (part of his compensation) - roughly $469 million.

Due to scientific evidence that Monsanto’s genetically modified corn is devastating the dying bee population, it has bought itself one of the largest bee research firms on the planet in efforts to polish its image.

Monsanto scooped up Beelogics in September 2011. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA is going to give Monsanto a strong ability to influence politicians the way they want. And the way they want is for…

1) Mark Pincus: The Zynga online gaming goliath, wants it all. Money and power. Pincus had spent the previous four years prior to 2011 building up Zynga. The Pincus personal net worth? Forbes put that at $2 billion.

In March 2011, Pincus sold off a chunk of his Zynga shares and cleared a neat $110 million.

This lucrative sale in no way loosened the Pincus lock-grip over Zynga. The Harvard MBA had structured the company’s stock to make him the only owner of…

The hard times that most Americans continue to experience don't seem to be making an impact on their representatives in Washington. Why? Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars, excluding home equity.

Members of Congress have been getting richer over the last 25 years by kowtowing to the…

An excerpt from page 150, America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy”

Credit Default Swaps (CDS)

If Mr. Spock, of Star Trek fame, spotted a CDS and had to describe it to Captain Kirk, he would have said, in his usual expressionless way: “They are insurance policies, Captain, but not as we know them.” CDSs pay out pre-specified amounts of money if someone else defaults. The difference between a CDS and a…

Monetary reform is a fundamental shift in how America creates money. The shift is from a Robber Baron-era design of banks creating credit to lend to us at interest and ever-increasing debt, to our community (government) creating it for the direct payment of public goods and services.

The Great Depression in the US (1929-1941) motivated professional economists to comprehensively and creatively address its…

The craziness just keeps on coming from the “venerable” US Supreme Court. The sick individuals that make up the corrupt court never fail to amaze in their nefarious dealings.

For example: Ex Monsanto lawyer Clarence Thomas to hear Major Monsanto Case. The world has long since noticed, and Americans begin to notice, that the 911-Empire crushes life, wealth and community. The US government invades at will, and now invades its own continent of citizens. Now, in Monsanto v.…

OF COURSE THEY DO! THEY GET RICH BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE AS GOOD CROOKS AND CRIMINALS DO! THE RICH ARE TRULY PSYCHOPATHS AND SOCIOPATHS!

Bloomberg reports that a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the "upper class" are more likely to behave unethically than those of us with less money. According to the study rich scum were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to…

By Charles Hugh Smith (shortened & freely adapted by yours truly) can be viewed online with the above title.

Political and social revolutions occur when the productive classes realize the Status Quo no longer serves their self-interests. In other words, the revolution is first and foremost a personal internal process of recognition and enlightenment: all the propaganda issued by the Status Quo, which serves the best interests of the productive classes, is finally…

Many libertarians regard Social Security and Medicare as welfare handouts and as Ponzi schemes, when in fact these programs are a form of private property. People pay for these programs all their working lives, just as they pay premiums for private medical policies and make their deposits into private pension plans. Libertarians are great defenders of private property, so why don’t they defend the elderly’s private property rights in Social Security and Medicare benefits? Social Security and…